King’s Cross: Ongoing redevelopment gives the area a rough-and-ready edge

The insider’s guide to the capital’s hidden gems visits King’s Cross – the transport hub with the magic touch.

King’s Cross is in the middle of a £2billion redevelopment project (Map: Øivind Hovland)

Once a transport hub with a Harry Potter platform and a few dodgy shops, King’s Cross is now a transport hub with a Harry Potter platform, a few dodgy shops and a massive regeneration programme. King’s Cross Central’s 67-acre (27ha) site is already home to art college Central Saint Martins, which moved into a former grain store last autumn, and £2billion is being poured into redevelopment but it’s still very much a work in progress.

That gives the area a more rough-and-ready feel than it’s likely to have once the office blocks go up: off-limits building sites mingle with pop-up structures and mobile eateries to provide an edginess that lacks the sanitised polish of some slicker neighbourhoods.

Gourmet street food collective Eat.St (Mon to Fri,11am to 2.30pm, eat.st/ kings-cross ) offers everything from pulled pork and smoked herring to kimchi and moules frites (courtesy of the Mussel Men). A disused canalside petrol station has been transformed into Shrimpy’s diner (Goods Way, shrimpys.co.uk ), run by the people behind Bistrotheque in Hackney. The temporary site (they’re wary of the term ‘pop-up’ – it’s due to last a few years), called the Filling Station ( kxfs.co.uk ), also houses a pizza bar in its forecourt and has teamed up with the likes of Intelligence Squared for a series of events.

Other artistic offerings include Jacques Rival’s giant birdcage, at the top of new street King’s Boulevard (the development even has its own new postcode, N1C), and New Zealand’s Olympic base, Kiwi House ( olympic.org.nz/london-2012/kiwi-house ) at Granary Square.

Beyond King’s Cross Central, the area’s not short on culture. With the Gagosian Gallery ( gagosian.com ) down the road, the British Library ( bl.uk ) alongside St Pancras station and the London Canal Museum ( canalmuseum.org.uk ) just off York Way, there’s plenty to while away the hours. Next to the Canal Museum, Kings Place ( kingsplace.co.uk ) is a hybrid of office space and arts venue, providing the base for the London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as well as putting on regular jazz, folk and comedy nights.

Another stop on the stand-up circuit, Weirdos is held fortnightly at the Kings Cross Social Club ( kingscrosssocialclub.com ), where acts are encouraged to showcase material that’s deemed too alternative for other clubs. A similarly offbeat proposition can be found on Caledonian Road (or ‘The Cally’, as it’s known by locals), a less salubrious stretch where hints of the area’s red-light past remain. Next to an adult bookshop and across the street from a porn cinema (which sits incongruously next to a mosque), Drink Shop & Do ( drinkshopdo.com ) sells designer trinkets alongside old-fashioned sweets and balls of wool. Its bar and café also hosts a range of do’s: everything from lunchtime discos, to sculpting Lionel Richie’s head out of clay while sipping cocktails.

Caravan has an on-site coffee roastery

It’s not all grit and pop-ups, though. Kings Cross can give the West End a run for its money with shinier options, too. Find your way through the maze of offices in Regents Quarter and you’ll be rewarded with Bar Pepito ( camino.uk.com/pepito ), a sherry bar serving tapas and pata negra jamón, the caviar of hams. The after-work crowd are treated with sister restaurant Camino and ‘17th-century-inspired punch house’ VOC ( voc-london.co.uk ) in the same courtyard. Other foodie gems include Caravan ( caravanonexmouth.co.uk ) with an on-site coffee roastery and seating on Granary Square.

But if it’s luxury and fine foods you’re after, head to St Pancras. With Europe’s longest Champagne Bar ( searcystpancras.co.uk ) in the station and the Booking Office ( bookingofficerestaurant.com ) and Marcus Wareing’s Gilbert Scott ( thegilbertscott.co.uk ) in the hotel, you can conjure up the glamour of the age of steam before hopping on the Javelin train.